Toyota was forced to close the order book for the Land Cruiser and its uptown cousin, the Lexus LX, recently because it was being swamped with orders it had no chance of fulfilling. And now it looks like the the smaller Lexus NX has also been taken off the menu.
Demand for the Japan-built LX and Land Cruiser in Japan was so huge customers were facing an absurd four-year wait between placing an order and taking delivery, a situation so grave Toyota was worried that if it didn’t stop taking orders it would still be trying to fulfill them when the current SUV was replaced.
The smaller NX, which is built in north Canada and Japan, has also got customers desperate to give Lexus their cash, though the delivery schedule isn’t quite so horrific. Automotive News reports that customers were facing a one-year wait to get their cars, but that was still enough for Lexus Japan to temporarily stop taking orders.
Japanese customers face a four-year wait to get a new Lexus LX
Before anyone in the U.S. who’s already placed an order for an LX or NX, or who hopes to in the near future, starts to panic we should make clear that it’s only Japanese-market orders that have been halted. A spokesperson for Lexus told Carscoops that “LX orders in the U.S. are still being accepted and vehicles are being delivered to dealerships as soon as they arrive.”
The new-for-’22 Lexus LX costs from $86,900 and features a twin-turbocharged V6 with 409 hp (305 kW) and 479 lb-ft (649 Nm) of torque, while the NX is available with Lexus’s first ever plug-in hybrid drivetrain and starts at a hair under $40k. Sadly, the Toyota Land Cruiser isn’t available in North America.
The shortage of cars is, of course, a perfect storm of big demand for some desirable new metal plus supply chain disruptions caused by pandemic-related issues and the same shortage of semiconductors that is crippling so many carmakers. According to an earlier Automotive News story, Toyota is behind on its production forecast by a massive 400,000 vehicles and must build a staggering 840,000 units every single month from this July if it is to meet its original target for this fiscal year of 9.7 million vehicles.